SSMU COUNCIL
Guest speakers discuss finances
On S eptember 1 4, the S tudents’ Society of M cgill University ( SSMU) Legislative Council convened for its first meeting of the year.
Socially Responsible Investment fund
Council hear d a detailed pr esentation from Vadim di Pietro, the Chief Investment Officer of Desautels Capital M anagement ( DCM). Accor ding to its website , DCM is “Canada’s first university - owned, student- run r egistered investment firm. ” A t Thursday’s council meeting , di Pietr o discussed the S tudents’ S ociety of M cgill University ( SSMU) VP Finance Arisha Khan’s plan to create a Socially Responsible Investment ( SRI) fund for the S ociety, which would be managed b y DCM. In essence, the SRI should ensur e that a por - tion of SSMU’S funds is invested in sustainable, ethically- run companies.
“For one, you want to [invest in] things that are consistent with your own moral values,” said di Pietro, “but on top of that, y ou’re actually trying to ha ve an impact that will [...] do good for society, and for the environment.”
In a message to The Daily, Khan explained that she chose DCM to manage the SRI fund because of their student -run status ,“SSMU’S accountants do not handle investments ( you have to be licensed specifically for that pur - pose),” she wr ote. “Our investment portfolio is managed b y Lester Asset M anagement which is [an e xternal] company. [SSMU has] no choice [but] to go with [an external] company and this way we are supporting student learning in sustainable investing and pr omoting it heavily at Mcgill.”
When ask ed how corpor ations’ ‘social responsibility’ will be determined, Khan told The Daily that SSMU’S SRI fund will use the index of a company called S ustainalytics, known as a global leader in ESG analysis. ESG refers to “environmental, social, and corpo - rate governance,” a standar d of a company’ s operations concerning the r ange of factors that shape the impact of an investment. ESG analysis tak es into account ecological sustainability, labour practices, employee diversity, and human rights , among numer - ous other factors.
“[Sustainalytics is] the leader in ESG analysis but with anything else investors must do their own deeper r esearch,” explained Khan.
So how e xactly will the cr eation of an SRI change SSMU’ s investment portfo - lio? SSMU is constitutionally committed to “demonstrating leadership in matters of human rights , social justice , and envir onmental protection,” and to “[being] mindful of the direct and indirect effects that Society businesses and or ganizations have on their social, political, economic, and environmental surroundings.”
The SSMU Sustainability Policy requires that the S ociety “be stew ards of students’ money in an ethical manner,” and “prioritize funding to initiatives that will [...] lead to considerable social and/ or envir onmental benefit.”
Finally, the Climate Change P olicy mandates SSMU to “continue to avoid all investments in the fossil fuel industry.”
Despite these pr ovisions, e xplained Khan, SSMU’S current investments aren’t as ‘socially responsible’ as they could be.
“Right now , we just invest in what is returning well,” Khan told The Daily. “There is no ‘positive scr eening’ done [to deter - mine] how [we can] not just invest for a return but r ather in companies that ar e doing good things and tr eating people and the environment right.”
Regarding the specific issue of divest - ment fr om fossil fuels , Khan commented that the above policies had not been entirely respected.
“SSMU was not divested fully [fr om fossil fuels] when I came in [to the position of VP Finance], ” wr ote Khan. “Ther e is one pipeline company left that I submitted a request to divest fr om. S ome of the other companies [in which SSMU invests] ar e sort of questionable, but [...] y ou are limited when it comes to the Canadian landscape because most of Canada’s [wealth] is miningrelated,” said Khan.
Sustainability Projects Fund
In addition to Di Pietr o’s pr esentation, Council also hear d fr om gues t speak er Krista Houser, the administrator of Mcgill’s Sustainability Pr ojects F und ( SPF). SPF was established in 2009 as a thr ee-year pilot pr oject funded b y SSMU , the P ostGraduate S tudents’ S ociety ( PGSS), and the M acdonald Campus S tudents’ S ociety (MCSS). H ouser e xplained that the SPF , which allocates funding to members of the Mcgill community inter ested in starting new sus tainability- themed pr ojects, will have to run a r eferendum campaign this semester to ha ve its non-opt- outable $0.50 student fee r enewed. The M cgill adminis- tration alr eady matches this fee dollar for dollar, and will continue to do so should the fee renewal pass.
Houser also announced the forthcoming cr eation of a “tiny str eam application process,” intended to mak e it easier for smaller- scale pr ojects to r eceive assistance from the SPF. This initiative is e xpected to be operational in the next few weeks.
Motions Passed
Following the guest pr esentations, two motions wer e debated and appr oved. The first, a “Motion R egarding the A doption of the S tanding R ules for the 2017 -2018 Legislative Council, ” consisted of a series of minor modifications to R obert’s R ules of Or der intended to str eamline this y ear’s Council meetings. The motion passed after relatively little debate , with only a few minor adjustments to the pr oposal’s wor ding.
The second motion on the table , a “Motion to Change the Status of the Students’ Society Programming Network,” aimed to move the aforementioned network ( known as SSPN) a way fr om Legislative Council for ethical r easons. Accor ding to the motion ’s “wher eas” clauses , SSPN has historically had looser membership requirements than other committees of Council, while simultaneously providing “many more incentives for its members than other committees.” This, apparently, had been a source of tension between SSMU councillors who were part of SSPN and those who wer en’t.
In or der to addr ess this pr oblem, the motion proposed changing the thr ee SSPN seats currently reserved for SSMU councillors into mor e seats for members-at -large. Additionally, it proposed that, while councillors will still be allowed to join SSPN , doing so will “not fulfill their mandate of joining a committee of Legislative Council.”
The second motion also passed with minimal debate.
SSMU is constitutionally committed to “demonstrating leadership in matters of human rights, social justice, and environmental protection.”